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A Day on the Farm in South Dakota!

Fun fact: I kind of always wanted to live on a farm! Minus the manure and farm work (the hard stuff!), I always admired a life of being close to our food, animals, and outdoors. I have always been curious about where our food comes from, how it’s produced, and learning more about healthy ways of living. That’s where I am so thankful for Hungry for Truth! I’ve been involved with them now for about three years and it has filled the gap between consumer and farmer to educate me and others about how our food is raised and its safety. And this last weekend, I got to take my family along with me for a tour of a farm! We had so much fun living like little farmers (without the messy hard work!) and got to see all the animals and beautiful green fields of alfalfa.

We headed to Colman, South Dakota with a couple other bloggers and their families – Maren with Midwest in Style and Andee with The Speech Mom – to visit the Kontz farm where they had fields of crops and animals galore! They had over 500 cows and dozens of chickens filling their farm with sights and smells my kids will surely never forget! :) Hungry for Truth first welcomed us with the cutest display of kiddo approved goodies and snacks and our kids made themselves at home with full bellies and an open prairie to graze and run around. Leo was in absolute heaven with all the big machines and animals! Ivy made a new best friend with the little girl who lived there who gaver her her own personal tour of the farm!

After filling our bellies and gathering the wild kids, we headed to go see the cows! They were huddled in their barn and WHEW the smell was intense! But what’s a farm without some good (or bad!!!) smells to smell!! Faye just walked right up and stared as they stared back, she was quite the curious little girl. She’s always been our animal lover so I think she was loving it! We continued around the barn to see all of the cows and there were so many! They said over 500! I learned that ONE LUCKY BULL gets to be in the field with some of the girl cows to breed. ONE. Lucky fella! I asked how they chose that one bull and she explained that he is just the right size for the females so that the calves aren’t so big or so small and also that his breed was what they wanted to reproduce. Pretty amazing that only one gets that opportunity! He was in his own pasture with some other females. He’s got the life! ;)

We even got to feed the cows! They herded the cows from the pasture over to us and all of the kids had their goody bags filled with feed to give them a little snack. As the cows came running, you could see the kids getting nervous, but after the first feeding, Leo dove right in with more and more feed! It was so neat to see the cows up close and personal. The kids loved this!

Next, we continued onto the chicken coop, the fun part! The kids LOVED to try to chase the chickens through the woods. Leo tried and he tried and he just couldn’t get one! Then they headed in the chicken coop to gather up some new eggs. I learned that they were young chickens laying eggs and they’re still figuring out their bodies and how to lay them. Sometimes they poop on them still and learning how to not do that all comes with time (I feel ya chickens! Birthing something is NOT easy!! lol!!). I also learned that the way to create a chick in the egg is that the mama needs to lay on it to keep it warm and nurture it then a chick would form. If not, it just remains an egg! Pretty neat!

We headed into the alfalfa fields from there and they were literally gorgeous. This is what farm life would be to me!!! Just fields of BEAUTY! The fields were shining from the sunlight and there was just enough of a hill that you couldn’t see the road or anything else but these fields. Ivy ran through them with her friend and this was by far my favorite scene. Running free in all of Earth’s beauty! It was such a calming moment for me as the kids made up all their own games and used their imaginations with these beautiful fields as their playground. So serene!

From here was Leo’s favorite!!! He got to see a semi and ride a tractor! His dream come true! He is so obsessed with trucks and cars and machines and this capped the farm tour off perfectly! He was all smiles and enjoyed jumping into the “biiiiiiig tractor!”

Overall, SO MUCH FUN! I love the opportunity to involve my family and talk to farmers and see what they do on their farm. I learn so much and have become so much more aware of where our food comes from and all of the hard work to get it to our tables.

Thank you so much Hungry for Truth and the Kontz’s (pictured below)! We had a blast! Ivy said as we were leaving, “I want to be a farm girl!” I can just imagine her running around herding cattle in her tutus and dresses… she’d do just fine! ;)